Alcantara Blasts 448 Foot Homer, Pelicans Grab Series Opener over Shorebirds

The victory was Myrtle Beach’s sixth consecutive over Delmarva

By Sam Weiderhaft

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans defended a late rally by the Delmarva Shorebirds to take a 7-5 win in Tuesday night’s return to Pelicans Ballpark. With the Charleston RiverDogs loss, Myrtle Beach now has a two-game lead in the Carolina League South division standings with a 33-13 record. Delmarva slipped to 16-30 and 1-6 against the Pelicans this season.

It was another stellar game at the plate for Kevin Alcantara (2-3, HR, 3B, 2 RBI) who lined a triple off the center-field wall and clobbered a 448-foot home run over the left-field bleachers while bringing in another run on a sacrifice fly. Ezequiel Pagan (2-4, RBI, R) also logged a multi-hit game with an RBI single out of the leadoff spot. Four of the nine Pelicans’ hits were extra in the win.

The hot month of May closed for Luis Devers (5-3) with his fifth victory of the year. Devers threw five scoreless frames with three hits allowed and a walk while striking out six batters. Chase Watkins gave up two earned runs in his 2 1/3 innings off two hits and a walk with four strikeouts in relief. Adam Laskey threw the final inning and struck out three batters while giving up one unearned run and a hit.

It was a quiet night for clutch hitting as the Shorebirds went just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position and collected seven hits for the game. Elio Prado (2-5, RBI, R) and Noelberth Romero (2-4, RBI) led the group with the only RBI of the game.

Shane Davis (1-5) found a groove late in his outing but took the loss with four runs, three earned off six hits and a walk in his six complete innings. Davis struck out six while the defense gave up three errors with him on the mound. Joel Benitez was the only bullpen arm used as he threw the final two innings with three earned runs off three hits and two walks while striking out a pair.

The Pelicans jumped out to an early lead in the second as three runs came across off four hits and two errors. BJ Murray led off with a single up the middle and Jacob Wetzel bounced a ground-rule double over the right-field wall to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Miguel Fabrizio grounded out to shortstop as Murray came in for the game’s first run. With Wetzel on third, Reginald Preciado hit into a fielder’s choice as Luis Valdez at second threw home too late for the second run. Ethan Hearn came up and grounded into a force out at second but advanced to second with Delmarva trying to turn the double play. Isaac De Leon’s throw to first went wild to move Hearn in scoring position. Pagan came up and singled to center as Hearn scored to make it 3-0 Pelicans.

Both teams stayed quiet until the sixth inning when the Shorebirds got themselves back in the game. With Watkins replacing Devers on the mound, Valdez worked a walk and Prado singled to center. Mishael Deson struck out and Isaac Bellony flew out for two quick outs. Romero cashed in with a single to right as Valdez scored and Prado reached third. Watkins threw a wild pitch in the next at-bat to score Prado as Delmarva trailed 3-2.

The Pelicans responded with runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Alcantara drove the second pitch of the inning over the left-field bleachers for a solo home run. The monster shot was his sixth of the season.

Hearn worked a walk to lead off the seventh but was out on a throw to third following Pagan’s bunt single. Kevin Made followed with a double to left-center field to place runners on second and third. James Triantos walked to load the bases and Pagan scored on a wild pitch thrown to Alcantara at the plate. Alcantara hit Made in with a sacrifice fly to center field. Murray followed with a line-drive single to right field to plate Triantos as the Pelicans extended their lead to 7-2.

It was a rocky ninth inning for the Pelicans' defense of Johzan Oquendo gave up a leadoff double to De Leon and a walk to Trendon Craig. Laskey came out of the bullpen and quickly struck out the following two batters to bring the Shorebirds to their final out. With a 1-2 count, Valdez hit a grounder to first that went under the glove of Murray for a fielding error as two runs scored. Valdez then went to second on Wetzel’s throwing error in right that sailed over to the ball behind third base. Prado then singled to left to score Valdez and make it a 7-5 game. Deson went down swinging on Laskey to close out the game.

The Pelicans and Shorebirds will meet for game two of the series on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m.